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Following complaints, Snapchat back pedals on redesign

Snapchat has rolled out a new update which replaces the polarising redesign that users critically panned a few months ago. The new update to its iOS app will see snaps and chats going back to its chronological order, conversations with friends will return to its original right-hand side position of the screen.

In addition, users will be directed straight to the camera once the app is started. Snapchat is also adding a new subscriptions feed to make it easier to follow content creators, publishers and shows as part of the update. The update is currently available only to iOS users, with Android’s roll out yet to be announced.

“We learned that combining watching Stories and communicating with old friends into the same place made it harder to optimise for both competing behaviours,” Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said.

He added that Snapchat is currently rolling out at update which sorts communication by recency and moving Stories from friends to the right side of the application. This is while maintaining the structural three changes it had made around separating friends from creators and sorting friends’ Stories by relationships, the Adweek report said.

This however, was not well received by users, who called the new update “confusing” and “inconvenient”. Many users also called for a reversion to the old layout. This prompted Snapchat to later issue a statement on the Change.org petition and rolling out new fixes to appease angry users.

The fixes, which rolled out in February this year, included the introduction of tabs in the platform’s Friends and Discover sections, which will enable users to find the Stories they want more easily, when they want them. At the time of writing, the petition garnered around 1,257,925 signatures.

In March, Snapchat drew the ire of Rihanna and her fans after an ad from its self-serve advertiser platform featuring an image of her went awry. This prompted the star to not only call out Snapchat, but she also urged her 61 million fans on Instagram to delete the app on their mobiles, despite the latter apologising twice for the mistake.

In the wake of Fenty’s comments, Snap share prices also took a 4% dive, a BBC report said. This is the second time in the last two months that saw Snap shares taking a dive because of stars on the platform. The first occurrence happened at the end of last month due to comments made by Kylie Jenner, who questioned if there was still anyone using the platform.

Maybelline also deleted a tweet on its Twitter page which polled followers on whether or not it should continue its presence on Snapchat. According to the now deleted screenshots seen by Marketing, the beauty brand admitted that views on its Snapchat have “dropped dramatically”.